January 16 2004
Rafi Ali, a key member of the Singapore team when they won the Tiger Cup in 1998, could retire from football.
Rafi Ali had only recently been called up by the national team but he is currently without a club after his previous club Jurong pulled out of the S-league due to financial difficulties & is finding it hard to join another club.
He had revealed he had negotiations with 2 clubs but they had failed to reach an agreement. With a family to feed, Rafi Ali felt that the current situation in Singapore football cannot offer him the security & stability needed & he might have to look for a new job outside football.
Also national coach Radojko Avramovic feel that without a club the chances of calling up Rafi Ali in future is slim as he will not be playing football regularly thus no way of assessing how fit or kind of form he is in.
Rafi Ali had wanted to retire from international football after this year Tiger Cup as he wanted to lead the team to another international trophy in the hope of bowing out with a bang but it looked increasing unlikely at the moment.
If Rafi Ali to retire, he will the 4th player who is either to be an international or ex-international to have retire from the game after Lim Tong Hai, Lee Mon Hon &R Sasikumar have done so in the last couple of months.